Missouri Pastor Living in Vermont Charged in Arson

DEXTER (AP) - A southeast Missouri pastor has been charged with enlisting his mistress and her husband in an unsuccessful plot to burn down his home and kill his wife.

Sixty-nine-year-old Donald Lafferty was arrested Monday night by state police in North Andover, Massachusetts. The former Bloomfield school board member moved to Quechee, Vermont after a January 2013 house fire that police say was arson.

The Dexter Daily Statesman reports that Lafferty enlisted 33-year-old Brandy Hicks, of Dexter, and her husband Chris in a scheme to burn the house and collect insurance money. Brandy Hicks told a Stoddard County investigator that she and Lafferty started a sexual relationship after attending his church.

Lafferty also faces a felony charge of financial exploitation of the elderly in a case involving his 89-year-old mother.